tags are fun and very web2.0
but this is an accounting system. any accounting system i know has a hierarchical sytem of categories. this is needed because i need to be able to sort transactions into categories that belong to other categories.

example:

i have the category "car" and the sub-categories "insurance" and "gas".

without a hierarchical system i would not be able to analyse my spendings that i am doing for "car" because i would have only one level of tags.

so i vote for option 2: variable-depth hierarchies. i dont see the difference between hierarchical categories and hierarchical tags.

i have the category "car" and the sub-categories "insurance" and "gas".

without a hierarchical system i would not be able to analyse my spendings that i am doing for "car" because i would have only one level of tags.

so i vote for option 2: variable-depth hierarchies. i dont see the difference between hierarchical categories and hierarchical tags.

The main difference I see between tags and categories are hierarchy and multiplicity.

Categories:
Every transaction can have only one category. Relations to other transactions are set explicitly and generally by the category hierarchy.

Tags:
Every transaction can have zero to unlimited tags. Relations to other transactions are set individually by just assigning multiple tags. Tags have either no relation by itself (flat model) or explicitly set by a hierarchy.

In your situation, I would just attach both the tags "car" and "insurance" to one transaction. Then I can analyze all car spendings by just selecting tag "car", all insurance spendings by selecting "insurance" and all car insurance spendings by selecting both tags. This already shows some advantage of the tag system, as there would be no way to have the "car insurance" category both below "car" and "insurance" main categories, so you could either analyze all car related or insurance related spendings easily.

There are also other requirements for multiple structuring entries. For example, I just moved to another place. I bought some new electronics for this place. This would go to my "electronics" category. But I also have a category for "new flat". In a category system, I have to choose. In a tag system, I can have arbitrary number of assignments, at any granularity level.

As seen above, you can simulate a hierarchy by a flat tag system. Therefore, I think a flat tag system is the best way, a hierarchy in the tags would add unnecessary complexity.

If we provide type assist for tags (i. e. if you type the first few characters, BADGER proposes all tags starting with these characters), it is very easy to compose existing tags, for example, to a query.

How would a transaction tagged 'car' for a model car purchase not be included in a report for car expenses?

There are two possible solutions:
1) You tag the model car by "ModelCar"
2) We define the tag delimiter by something different from space, so you would tag something like "model car; birthday present". This would require a user-definable tag delimiter, which shouldn't be hard to implement.

How would a transaction tagged 'car' for a model car purchase not be included in a report for car expenses?

since a model car is a toy, i would just tag it "toy" ?

for me, this example is not an argument against tags. if you have categories and there is a category "car" and you put the model car into that category it will also show up in the car expense report ... both times it would be a user error.

To only be able to use the tag 'toy' seems to restrictive. What if a user is really into toys or models in a big way. They would then want to distinguish between toy car and toy tank. The problem with using the tags 'toy car' or 'toy tank' is that we could then not create a report on just transaction with the tag 'toy' unless we also included the tag 'toy' with the tag 'toy car' or 'toy tank'. If we use the tags 'model' or 'toy', and 'car' to tag the model car transaction we still have the problem of this transaction showing up in our real car expense report.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum